Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Intermolecular (now part of the Performance Materials business unit at Merck) reports that using a platform developed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, it has developed a simpler screening method for looking at the properties of films deposited into high aspect-ratio structures.

The VTT PillarHall® chip consists of membranes suspended above a silicon substrate and supported by nanoscale pillars, which can also be described as horizontal trenches.

The advantage of using this type of structure is that instead of needing cross-sections, simple planar metrology techniques can be used, and sample preparation is as easy as “dep, stick, rip!” The film is deposited on the trenches by ALD, a piece of sticky tape is attached to the sample and peeled off, and then any standard planar metrology technique can be used, for example, optical microscopy or SEM/EDX. (Credit :Intermolecular/VTT PillarHall® )